Studies in the Psychology of Sex Volume Iv Part 9

We may gather from the Priapeia (XXVI) that cymbals and castanets were the special accompaniment in antiquity of wanton songs and dances: "cymbala, c.u.m crotalis, pruriginis arma."

The ancient belief in the moralizing influence of music has survived into modern times mainly in a somewhat more scientific form as a belief in its therapeutic effects in disordered nervous and mental conditions. (This also is an ancient belief as witnessed by the well-known example of David playing to Saul to dispel his melancholia.) In 1729 an apothecary of Oakham, Richard Broune, published a work ent.i.tled Medicina Musica, in which he argued that music was beneficial in many maladies. In more recent days there have been various experiments and cases brought forward showing its efficacy in special conditions.

An American physician (W. F. Hutchinson) has shown that anaesthesia may be produced with accurately made tuning forks at certain rates of vibration (summarized in the British Medical Journal, June 4, 1898). Ferrand in a paper read before the Paris Academy of Medicine in September, 1895, gives reasons for cla.s.sing some kinds of music as powerful antispasmodics with beneficial therapeutic action. The case was subsequently reported of a child in whom night-terrors were eased by calming music in a minor key. The value of music in lunatic asylums is well recognized; see e.g., Nacke, Revue de Psychiatrie, October, 1897. Vaschide and Vurpas (Comptes Rendus de la Societe de Biologie, December 13, 1902) have recorded the case of a girl of 20, suffering from mental confusion with excitation and central motor disequilibrium, whose muscular equilibrium was restored and movements rendered more co-ordinated and adaptive under the influence of music.

While there has been much extravagance in the ancient doctrine concerning the effects of music, the real effects are still considerable. Not only is this demonstrated by the experiments already referred to (p. 118), indicating the efficacy of musical sounds as physiological stimulants, but also by anatomical considerations. The roots of the auditory nerves, McKendrick has pointed out, are probably more widely distributed and have more extensive connections than those of any other nerve. The intricate connections of these nerves are still only being unraveled. This points to an explanation of how music penetrates to the very roots of our being, influencing by a.s.sociational paths reflex mechanisms both cerebral and somatic, so that there is scarcely a function of the body that may not be affected by the rhythmical pulsations, melodic progressions, and harmonic combinations of musical tones. (Nature, June 15, 1899, p. 164.)

Just as we are not ent.i.tled from the ancient belief in the influence of music on morals or the modern beliefs in its therapeutic influence-even though this has sometimes gone to the length of advocating its use in impotence[118]-to argue that music has a marked influence in exciting the specifically s.e.xual instincts, neither are we ent.i.tled to find any similar argument in the fact that music is frequently a.s.sociated with the love-feelings of youth. Men are often able to a.s.sociate many of their earliest ideas of love in boyhood with women singing or playing; but in these cases it will always be found that the fascination was romantic and sentimental, and not specifically erotic.[119] In adult life the music which often seems to us to be most definitely s.e.xual in its appeal (such as much of Wagner's Tristan) really produces this effect in part from the a.s.sociation with the story, and in part from the intellectual realization of the composer's effort to translate pa.s.sion into aesthetic terms; the actual effect of the music is not s.e.xual, and it can well be believed that the results of experiments as regards the s.e.xual influence of the Tristan music on men under the influence of hypnotism have been, as reported, negative. Helmholtz goes so far as to state that the expression of s.e.xual longing in music is identical with that of religious longing. It is quite true, again, that a soft and gentle voice seems to every normal man as to Lear "an excellent thing in woman," and that a harsh or shrill voice may seem to deaden or even destroy altogether the attraction of a beautiful face. But the voice is not usually in itself an adequate or powerful method of evoking s.e.xual emotion in a man. Even in its supreme vocal manifestations the s.e.xual fascination exerted by a great singer, though certainly considerable, cannot be compared with that commonly exerted by the actress. Cases have, indeed, been recorded-chiefly occurring, it is probable, in men of somewhat morbid nervous disposition-in which s.e.xual attraction was exerted chiefly through the ear, or in which there was a special s.e.xual sensibility to particular inflections or accents.[120] Fere mentions the case of a young man in hospital with acute arthritis who complained of painful erections whenever he heard through the door the very agreeable voice of the young woman (invisible to him) who superintended the linen.[121] But these phenomena do not appear to be common, or, at all events, very p.r.o.nounced. So far as my own inquiries go, only a small proportion of men would appear to experience definite s.e.xual feelings on listening to music. And the fact that in woman the voice is so slightly differentiated from that of the child, as well as the very significant fact that among man's immediate or even remote ancestors the female's voice can seldom have served to attract the male, sufficiently account for the small part played by the voice and by music as a s.e.xual allurement working on men.[122]

It is otherwise with women. It may, indeed, be said at the outset that the reasons which make it antecedently improbable that men should be s.e.xually attracted through hearing render it probable that women should be so attracted. The change in the voice at p.u.b.erty makes the deeper masculine voice a characteristic secondary s.e.xual attribute of man, while the fact that among mammals generally it is the male that is most vocal-and that chiefly, or even sometimes exclusively, at the rutting season-renders it antecedently likely that among mammals generally, including the human species, there is in the female an actual or latent susceptibility to the s.e.xual significance of the male voice,[123] a susceptibility which, under the conditions of human civilization, may be transferred to music generally. It is noteworthy that in novels written by women there is a very frequent attentiveness to the qualities of the hero's voice and to its emotional effects on the heroine.[124] We may also note the special and peculiar personal enthusiasm aroused in women by popular musicians, a more p.r.o.nounced enthusiasm than is evoked in them by popular actors.

As an interesting example of the importance attached by women novelists to the effects of the male voice I may refer to George Eliot's Mill on the Floss, probably the most intimate and personal of George Eliot's works. In Book VI of this novel the influence of Stephen Guest (a somewhat commonplace young man) over Maggie Tulliver is ascribed almost exclusively to the effect of his base voice in singing. We are definitely told of Maggie Tulliver's "sensibility to the supreme excitement of music." Thus, on one occasion, "all her intentions were lost in the vague state of emotion produced by the inspiring duet-emotion that seemed to make her at once strong and weak: strong for all enjoyment, weak for all resistance. Poor Maggie! She looked very beautiful when her soul was being played on in this way by the inexorable power of sound. You might have seen the slightest perceptible quivering through her whole frame as she leaned a little forward, clasping her hands as if to steady herself; while her eyes dilated and brightened into that wideopen, childish expression of wondering delight, which always came back in her happiest moments." George Eliot's novels contain many allusions to the powerful emotional effects of music.

It is unnecessary to refer to Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata, in which music is regarded as the Galeotto to bring lovers together-"the connecting bond of music, the most refined l.u.s.t of the senses."

In primitive human courtship music very frequently plays a considerable part, though not usually the sole part, being generally found as the accompaniment of the song and the dance at erotic festivals.[125] The Gilas, of New Mexico, among whom courtship consists in a prolonged serenade day after day with the flute, furnish a somewhat exceptional case. Savage women are evidently very attentive to music; Backhouse (as quoted, by Ling Roth[126]) mentions how a woman belonging to the very primitive and now extinct Tasmanian race, when shown a musical box, listened "with intensity; her ears moved like those of a dog or horse, to catch the sound."

I have found little evidence to show that music, except in occasional cases, exerts even the slightest specifically s.e.xual effect on men, whether musical or unmusical. But I have ample evidence that it very frequently exerts to a slight but definite extent such an influence on women, even when quite normal. Judging from my own inquiries it would, indeed, seem likely that the majority of normal educated women are liable to experience some degree of definite s.e.xual excitement from music; one states that orchestral music generally tends to produce this effect; another finds it chiefly from Wagner's music; another from military music, etc. Others simply state-what, indeed, probably expresses the experience of most persons of either s.e.x-that it heightens one's mood. One lady mentions that some of her friends, whose erotic feelings are aroused by music, are especially affected in this way by the choral singing in Roman Catholic churches.[127]

In the typical cases just mentioned, all fairly normal and healthy women, the s.e.xual effects of music though definite were usually quite slight. In neuropathic subjects they may occasionally be more p.r.o.nounced. Thus, a medical correspondent has communicated to me the case of a married lady with one child, a refined, very beautiful, but highly neurotic, woman, married to a man with whom she has nothing in common. Her tastes lie in the direction of music; she is a splendid pianist, and her highly trained voice would have made a fortune. She confesses to strong s.e.xual feelings and does not understand why intercourse never affords what she knows she wants. But the hearing of beautiful music, or at times the excitement of her own singing, will sometimes cause intense o.r.g.a.s.m.

Vaschide and Vurpas, who emphasize the s.e.xually stimulating effects of music, only bring forward one case in any detail, and it is doubtless significant that this case is a woman. "While listening to a piece of music X changes expression, her eyes become bright, the features are accentuated, a smile begins to form, an expression of pleasure appears, the body becomes more erect, there is a general muscular hypertonicity. X tells us that as she listens to the music she experiences sensations very like those of normal intercourse. The difference chiefly concerns the local genital apparatus, for there is no flow of v.a.g.i.n.al mucus. On the psychic side the resemblance is marked." (Vaschide and Vurpas, "Du Coefficient s.e.xual de l'Impulsion Musicale," Archives de Neurologie, May, 1904.)

It is sometimes said, or implied, that a woman (or a man) sings better under the influence of s.e.xual emotion. The writer of an article already quoted, on "Woman in her Psychological Relations" (Journal of Psychological Medicine, 1851), mentions that "a young lady remarkable for her musical and poetical talents navely remarked to a friend who complimented her upon her singing: 'I never sing half so well as when I've had a love-fit.'" And George Eliot says. "There is no feeling, perhaps, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not make a man sing or play the better." While, however, it may be admitted that some degree of general emotional exaltation may exercise a favorable influence on the singing voice, it is difficult to believe that definite physical excitement at or immediately before the exercise of the voice can, as a rule, have anything but a deleterious effect on its quality. It is recognized that tenors (whose voices resemble those of women more than ba.s.ses, who are not called upon to be so careful in this respect) should observe rules of s.e.xual hygiene; and menstruation frequently has a definite influence in impairing the voice (H. Ellis, Man and Woman, fourth edition, p. 290). As the neighborhood of menstruation is also the period when s.e.xual excitement is most likely to be felt, we have here a further indication that s.e.xual emotion is not favorable to singing. I agree with the remarks of a correspondent, a musical amateur, who writes: "s.e.xual excitement and good singing do not appear to be correlated. A woman's emotional capacity in singing or acting may be remotely a.s.sociated with hysterical neuroses, but is better evinced for art purposes in the absence of disturbing s.e.xual influences. A woman may, indeed, fancy herself the heroine of a wanton romance and 'let herself go' a little in singing with improved results. But a memory of s.e.xual ardors will help no woman to make the best of her voice in training. Some women can only sing their best when they think of the other women they are outsinging. One girl 'lets her soul go out into her voice' thinking of jamroll, another thinking of her lover (when she has none), and most, no doubt, when they think of nothing. But no woman is likely to 'find herself' in an artistic sense because she has lost herself in another sense-not even if she has done so quite respectably."

The reality of the a.s.sociation between the s.e.xual impulse and music-and, indeed, art generally-is shown by the fact that the evolution of p.u.b.erty tends to be accompanied by a very marked interest in musical and other kinds of art. Lancaster, in a study of this question among a large number of young people (without reference to difference in s.e.x, though they were largely female), found that from 50 to 75 per cent of young people feel an impulse to art about the period of p.u.b.erty, lasting a few months, or at most a year or two. It appears that 464 young people showed an increased and pa.s.sionate love for music, against only 102 who experienced no change in this respect. The curve culminates at the age of 15 and falls rapidly after 16. Many of these cases were really quite unmusical.[128]

[86]

This view has been more especially developed by J. B. Miner, Motor, Visual, and Applied Rhythms, Psychological Review Monograph Supplements, vol. v, No. 4, 1903.

[87]

Sir S. Wilks, Medical Magazine, January, 1894; cf. Clifford Allb.u.t.t, "Music, Rhythm, and Muscle," Nature, February 8, 1894.

[88]

Bucher, Arbeit und Rhythmus, third edition, 1902; Wundt, Volkerpsychologie, 1900, Part I, p. 265.

[89]

Fere deals fully with the question in his book, Travail et Plaisir, 1904, Chapter III, "Influence du Rhythme sur le Travail."

[90]

Fillmore, "Primitive Scales and Rhythms," Proceedings of the International Congress of Anthropology, Chicago, 1893.

[91]

"Love Songs among the Omaha Indians," in Proceedings of same congress.

[92]

Groos, Spiele der Menschen, p. 33.

[93]

"a.n.a.lysis of the s.e.xual Impulse," Studies in the Psychology of s.e.x, vol. iii.

[94]

Fere, Sensation et Mouvement, Chapter V; id., Travail et Plaisir, Chapter XII.

[95]

Scripture, Thinking, Feeling, Doing, p. 85.

[96]

Tarchanoff, "Influence de la Musique sur l'Homme et sur les Animaux," Atti dell' XI Congresso Medico Internationale, Rome, 1894, vol. ii, p. 153; also in Archives Italiennes de Biologie, 1894.

[97]

"Love and Pain," Studies in the Psychology of s.e.x, vol. iii.

[98]

Fere, Travail et Plaisir, Chapter XII, "Action Physiologique des Sens Musicaux." "A practical treatise on harmony," Goblot remarks (Revue Philosophique, July, 1901, p. 61), "ought to tell us in what way such an interval, or such a succession of intervals, affects us. A theoretical treatise on harmony ought to tell us the explanation of these impressions. In a word, musical harmony is a psychological science." He adds that this science is very far from being const.i.tuted yet; we have hardly even obtained a glimpse of it.

[99]

American Journal of Psychology, April, 1898.

[100]

American Journal of Psychology, November, 1887. The influence of rhythm on the involuntary muscular system is indicated by the occasional effect of music in producing a tendency to contraction of the bladder.

[101]

Archiv fur Anatomie und Physiologie (Physiologisches Abtheilung), 1880, p. 420.

[102]

M. L. Patrizi, "Primi esperimenti intorno all' influenza della musica sulla circolozione del sangue nel cervello umano," International Congress fur Psychologie, Munich, 1897, p. 176.

[103]

Philosophische Studien, vol. xi.

[104]

Binet and Courtier, "La Vie Emotionelle," Annee Psychologique, Third Year, 1897, pp. 104-125.

[105]

Guibaud, Contribution a l'etude experimentale de l'influence de la musique sur la circulation et la respiration. These de Bordeaux, 1898, summarized in Annee Psychologique, Fifth Year, 1899, pp. 645-649.

[106]

International Congress of Physiology, Berne, 1895.

[107]

The influence of a.s.sociation plays no necessary part in these pleasurable influences, for Fere's experiments show that an unmusical subject responds physiologically, with much precision, to musical intervals he is unable to recognize. R. MacDougall also finds that the effective quality of rhythmical sequences does not appear to be dependent on secondary a.s.sociations (Psychological Review, January, 1903).

[108]

R. T. Lewis, in Nature Notes, August, 1891.

[109]

Cornish, "Orpheus at the Zoo," in Life at the Zoo, pp. 115-138.